Might as well just say it now: Rick Santorum has had his day.

Is this a trick question?

Why isn’t Rick Santorum the GOP 2016 frontrunner?

It’s because Rick Santorum is a former two-term Senator from Pennsylvania who will have been out of office for a decade by the time 2016 rolls around. By that time the GOP will have a minimum of six successful* sitting or just-retired governors, two or three sitting, popular Senators, and maybe a sitting Congressman to choose from in the primary: under those circumstances I don’t really care what Rick Santorum’s message would be. Neither, I suspect, would the American electorate. If it’s compelling, the winning candidate will simply rip it off wholesale.

I apologize if this comes out as cold, but we are in what SM Stirling calls military mode here: anything that doesn’t work, or that’s in the way, has to be tossed overboard and we’ll worry about it later. Rick Santorum’s tender feelings are in the way. And I don’t really care what the old rules say: the old rules are what gave us McCain and Romney, and I suspect that I’m not the only one who’s noticed that.

Just business, Rick. Nothing personal.

Via Hot Air Headlines.

Moe Lane

*I’m defining that as “Governors who have won re-election.” We’ll have at least three VERY IMPRESSIVE, successful governors, too. Although you may not describe some of their accomplishments ‘very impressive’ as much as you would ‘diabolical.’

25 thoughts on “Might as well just say it now: Rick Santorum has had his day.”

  1. Santorum got the crap kicked out of him by Mitt Romney. That really says it all.

  2. I’m guessing the “diabolical” governors are Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, and Scott Walker upon his throne of skulls.

      1. I would *really* like to clone Walker, raise the clone to adulthood overnight, and insert him into the IL 2014 governors race.
        .
        We have quite a few skulls that are still connected to Dem politicians that need to be a throne instead…
        .
        Mew

    1. My Gov is pretty diabolical as well. She has every liberal in the State (and neighboring States) hating her – so she must be doing SOMETHING right! LOL
      .
      Haley’s shooting range photo-op with an AR-15 is just…golden. All that was missing was a helocopter and dramatic landscape in the background to have been PERFECT!

      1. She also has a percentage of the in-state GOP hating her guts .. admittedly, the *correct* percentage, but .. you just know they’ll be on the phone to the NYT the second she announced and it’d be Palin all over again.
        .
        I like her too, it’s a real shame.
        .
        Mew

        1. On the Dem side we have Hillary Clinton a lifelong Washington insider/shill. And her husband Bill, a corrupt Governor of Arkansas, former President of the United States, and serial womanizer/ rapist.
          On the Republican side we have Nikki Haley a successful Governor of South Carolina entering in during a constitutional crisis, a true Washington outsider.
          And her husband and potential first consort, SC National Guardsmen and Iraq War Vet.

          1. I agree with your assessment, Midwest.
            .
            The media, however, will jump right into the cesspool side of the SC GOP, find someone willing to lie through his buck teeth (with obligatory cornpone accent and bible verse prominently displayed on the wall) and not question a damn thing he or she says.
            .
            Mew

  3. I loved him as a senator, his loss in 06 hit hard, and no one deserves what Dan Savage did to him, but he was washed up in `12 too. One does not lose by over 10 points in PA, disappear for 6 years and then reemerge as a Presidential material. The only reason Santorum had any traction he had last year is because he stuck around until his turn came and his name was not Romney or Gingrich.

    1. Was it the support for Davis-Bacon or pandering to unions or grandstanding on an out-of-state issue that you liked, Aruges?
      .
      I’m glad, for the record, that you loved him as a senator… and if he had tried to thump Casey Jr.’s skull in 2012 instead of a quixotic run for the white house, I would have supported him.
      .
      Sadly, as with Ms. Bachmann, ego got in the way of smart politics.
      .
      Mew

      1. I can “love” someone in spite of faults. He was as good a Senator as one could hope to get out of PA at the time, at least until Toomey came along (who’s not perfect either)

        1. I did not say you could not love him, Aruges. I am asking what about him you found loveable, as I can’t see it.
          .
          Yes, Toomey isn’t perfect. NOBODY is. I repeat myself, had Santorum’s ego been a tad more .. under control .. he would have curb-stomped do-nothing Casey Jr. and been back in the Senate. Instead, well …
          .
          Mew

          1. I don’t know if he could have curbstomped Casey, I was pretty sure Junior was at least a little popular in PA, and Santorum was pretty disliked.

          2. Santorum had six years to build a war chest, and Casey Jr. did nothing in the meantime to build any kind of record.
            .
            Instead, he just went to Iowa, threw a bunch of mud at other candidates, sucked up a bunch of money, and ended as a .. rather pathetic joke. Lost to Wafflin’ Willard? Really?
            .
            Mew

  4. Also, the media has their narrative about Santorum set in stone. He’s trying to usher in a new theocracy. Even low-information voters of my acquaintance “know” this about him.
    .
    Yes, it’s terribly unfair and inaccurate.
    That’s life. Deal with it.
    We defended Palin against the avalanche of false charges levied at her. Guess what people remember? They remember the stories, not that those stories were false. Likewise, Fred Thompson’s campaign was largely killed by Ben Smith reporting things he *knew* to be untrue. The false reporting was generally flagged as such within the hour of its posting. Ben Smith certainly hasn’t faced any negative repercussions for this abuse! Quite the opposite, in fact. He cut Thompson’s campaign off at the knees. Even politically-astute people often remember Smith’s stories as the “truth”.

  5. It should be Walker, Jindal & Haley on the debate stage. NO ONE ELSE. Unfortunately, that is not how it will be.

    1. Since it won’t work that way, can we start a rumor of a “death ray” that will zap any of the candidates who violate Reagan’s 11th?
      .
      Mew

      1. Someone needs to sit each one of those candidates down and say “You will support the nominee, no matter who he is. You will avoid personal attacks that can be used by the Democrats against the eventual nominee. If you do not wish to abide by these rules you can go join Ron Paul and Gary Johnson in the Libertarian Party, or Virgil Goode and Tom Tancredo in the Constitution Party.”

    2. Expect a crowded stage with liberal moderators, followed by the beltway insiders choosing a squishy “moderate” as the GOP front-runner once again.

      1. That’s exactly what I expect, jetty.
        .
        Doesn’t mean it’s not winnable, just means – as midwest says above – someone needs to slap the idiots around a little and get their attention focused.
        .
        The one time, in my lifetime, conservatives made any real inroads was when the conservative candidate went after the moderator and the “everybody knows” lies in an early debate .. and kept hammering away at the lies.. until he won.
        .
        Mew

        1. That someone could be Newt Gingrich, but it’d be hard considering he didn’t follow several of McLaughlin’s rules when he ran.

          1. Gingrich got tripped by his own ego. If he decides to sell more books (erm.. run) again, same thing will happen.
            .
            Newt being his own biggest fan was and is his fatal flaw.
            .
            No, what I’m looking for is a seasoned, but relatively young campaigner, someone whose name us political junkies will recognize but who can still be “introduced” to the rest of the party, and who isn’t afraid to serve up moderator liver early and often.
            .
            I think Moe is on the right track .. but the D.C. establishment are going to have to be brought to heel early if he or she has a chance.
            .
            Mew

    3. No one else? hmm, why not?

      If I were the dictator, I guess I would say Paul,Cruz, and Lee…………………and NO ONE ELSE lol.

      it’s cool night, we all have our favorites. We will be lucky if any Republican sniffs the Oval office in our lifetimes. Yes, it is that bad.

      1. Paul, Cruz, and Lee are simply the Conservative version of Obama. We need experience. Walker, Jindal, and Haley have shown they have a spine, and have ACTUAL experience running something. I’m so done with amateur hour. I think any of the three would be a fabulous choice for VP though.

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